CIS Hoops.ca

By Wayne Kondro

No one is sure where Dave Smart keeps all his coach of the year trophies.
He says they’re in the Carleton Ravens locker room but insists there isn’t a Dave Smart Trophy Case.
One assistant says there’s a trap door in the floor of the Raven’s Nest leading to a palatial underground suite in which the trophies are centrally displayed.
Smart denies that but refuses to divulge where they are.
“I’m not sure where they are. They’re around someplace.”
Are they in a cardboard box somewhere?
“I’m not getting quoted on where they are. Who knows?”
“It’s a secret,” he added. “But the award is real credit to our guys and what they’ve done.”
Wherever they are, Smart will have to make room for more hardware after winning the Stuart W. Aberdeen Memorial Trophy on Thursday as Canadian Interuniversity Sport coach of the year. It’s his third Aberdeen in seven years. He earlier captured Ontario University Athletics East coach of the year honours for the fifth time in nine years after guiding Carleton to a (33-1) record.
Ravens forward Rob Saunders also added to the Carleton trophy case after being selected CIS Defensive Player of the Year, while Brock’s Didi Mukendi was named Rookie of the Year and Laval’s Jerome Turcotte-Routhier won the Ken Shields award for basketball, academics and community involvement.
Meanwhile, for the second time in six years, the nation’s basketball coaches chose someone who didn’t get his team into the CIS tournament as player of the year. Trinity Western forward Jacob Doerksen, who averaged 20.8 points and 10.7 boards per game for a Spartans unit that tied for second in the Canada West Pacific division, duplicated the 2004 feat of Simon Fraser’s Pasha Bains by being named recipient of the Mike Moser Trophy.
Saunders said his award was entirely unexpected. “It’s pretty humbling but I don’t think the coaches really selected me to win that award. It’s gotta be a recognition of our team defence. Me personally, I don’t lead the league in steals or blocks and if you look at me, I’m definitely not an elite type of athlete.”
Smart said Saunders “has worked hard over five years to be the guy that we’ve needed him to be. It’s definitely shows that the coaches in this country pay attention because he doesn’t have gaudy stats in terms of steals and blocked shots. But he gets it done.”
Three local players earned all-Canadian laurels, including Carleton’s Stuart Turnbull and Aaron Doornekamp, as well as the University’s of Ottawa Josh Gibson-Bascombe.
The All-Canadian first team featured the MVPs of the nation’s five conferences: Turnbull; Doerksen; Greg Surmacz (Windsor - OUA West), Damian Buckley (Concordia – Quebec), and Christian Upshaw (St. Francis Xavier – Atlantic).
Turnbull appreciated the recognition. “It’s kind like a team winning an award for an individual playing in a good system.”
The second-team featured Doornekamp, who was last year’s Moser winner, along with Gibson-Bascombe; Dany Charlery (Brandon); Ross Bekkering (Calgary); and Phillip Nkrumah (Cape Breton).
“It just shows how hard my coach works, and how hard my teammates work every day, to help make me the player I am,” Gibson-Bascombe said.
The CIS all-rookie team featured Mukendi; Casey Fox (Acadia); Sam Freeman (Fraser Valley); Gregory St-Amand (UQAM); and David Tyndale (York).
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